The CFPB is tasked with protecting the public from unfair or abusive practices by mortgage servicers, payday lenders, and debt collectors... Under the CPFB’s current director, Richard Cordray, billions of dollars have been returned to consumers caught up in credit scams or malpractice in the banking sector. MAGA..?

This story, while not unexpected is just breaking. Not entirely sure what "being placed under formal investigation means" except that it clearly is another step forward to a charge and/or conviction:

French presidential candidate Francois Fillon was put under formal investigation on Tuesday morning over allegations of diversion of public funds and misappropriation of funds, Le Canard Enchaine weekly wrote on its Twitter page.

[....] Ryan’s main concern, at least as he expresses it here, is with the people who deeply want to see the ACA repealed: the Republican base. He and the rest of his party have been terrified of them for the past eight years, so it’s no surprise that the base’s wrath is still foremost in their minds.

But there’s a problem: 2018 is probably going to be a bloodbath for Republicans whether they pass repeal or not.

To understand why, let’s quickly run through the possible scenarios for the midterm elections as they relate to this effort, which will be the most dramatic and vividly emotional of all the legislative battles of the next few years [....]

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) also stopped and spoke to reporters at length Monday night, calling the GOP bill "disgusting and immoral" and saying it "must be defeated." "To think that in the year 2017, Republicans want to throw 24 million people off their health insurance, raise premiums for older people and at the same time provide $285 billion in tax breaks for the top two percent," he said gravely. "This bill should not see the light of day. If it passes, and people lose their health insurance, thousands of Americans will die."

WASHINGTON — The Senate on Monday confirmed Seema Verma, a health policy expert from Indiana, to lead efforts by the Trump administration to transform Medicaid, expand Medicare and upend the Affordable Care Act.

By a vote of 55 to 43, the Senate approved the nomination of Ms. Verma to be administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which spends more than $1 trillion a year on programs providing health care to more than one-third of all Americans.

Unlike most people who have held the job, Ms. Verma has extensive experience in Medicaid, a program that was expanded by former President Barack Obama’s health care law and now provides coverage to more than 70 million low-income people.

Ms. Verma was an architect of Indiana’s Medicaid program, widely seen as a model by conservatives, and worked closely with Vice President Mike Pence when he was the state’s governor. Indiana expanded Medicaid eligibility, but emphasized “personal responsibility.” That means that beneficiaries pay premiums, contribute to health savings accounts and receive incentives for healthy behavior [....]

[....] “And now we have seen this huge spike in small-business confidence since the election,” Mr. Korzenik said, pointing to a chart. “So I have to ask you: Do you feel more confident now?”

There was a moment of silence, broken only by a howling northwestern Ohio wind that rattled the floor-to-ceiling windows in the bank’s boardroom.

Then, with rapid-fire speed, came the responses.

The president of a trucking company spoke of a “tremendous dark cloud” lifting when he realized he would no longer be feeling the burden of rules and regulations imposed by the Obama administration.

The owner of an automotive parts assembler gave thanks that he would not be receiving visits from pesky environmental and workplace overseers.

And the head of a seating manufacturer expressed hope that, finally, his health care costs would come down when the Affordable Care Act was repealed.

“My gut just feels better,” said Bob Fleisher, president of a local car dealership. “With Obama, you felt it was personal — like he just didn’t want you to make money. Now we have a guy who is cutting regulations and taxes. And when I see my taxes going down every quarter — well, that means I am going to start investing again.” [....]

The buck doesn't even slow down on Trump's desk: Trump has accused Obama of lying about his birthplace, secretly aiding ISIS, secretly being a Muslim, and wiretapping Trump’s phone. On Friday, the president added another charge to his indictment: Obama deliberately designed the Affordable Care Act to fall apart — and cause massive suffering — as soon as he left office. 2017 “would be a disaster for Obamacare,” Trump said“That’s the year it was meant to explode, because Obama won’t be here. That’s when it was supposed to be, get even worse. As bad as it is now, it’ll get even worse.”

HISTORY MAKING: It must be Saturday — President Trump — who regularly lambasted his predecessor for spending too much time playing the sport — is golfing for the ninth time since taking office seven weeks ago. On the campaign trail he promised he wouldn’t golf if he was elected President because he’d be too busy.

Two of the biggest tax cuts in Republican proposals to repeal the Affordable Care Act would deliver roughly $157 billion over the coming decade to those with incomes of $1 million or more, according to a congressional analysis... People making $200,000 to $999,999 a year would also get sizable tax cuts. In total, the two provisions would cut taxes by about $274 billion..

It's not that complicated; there is one party that honors the principle of one person one vote (at least more often than not), and there is another party that does anything it can get away with to attack that principle.

Trump is fanatically demanding and leading with fanaticism to defend the blood purity and unprecedented impenetrable security of the Homeland, and the TSA Gestapo is manaically executing his pitiless decrees.

Two people died in demonstrations and frenzy following a historic ruling in South Korea to remove its first female president. The nation's acting president is calling for unity and calm as the impeached former President Park Geun-hye packs her bags.

"Conflicts during demonstrations is not right," said acting President Hwang Kyo-ahn.

"Our judges hope our sentence ... brings ideological divides and confusion in the state to an end," Chief Justice Lee Jung-mi said before reading out the decision.

Outside South Korea's Constitutional Court on Friday morning, thousands of South Koreans crammed onto the street to await the ruling. In an outdoor concertlike atmosphere, the chief justice was beamed onto giant screens as she read the announcement.

A wildflower superbloom is underway in the desert Southwest in March after seven inches of winter rain. Anza-Borrego State Park in California hasn’t experienced a bloom so prolific since at least 1999 according to park officials [....] It’s “a very rare event,” one hiker noted on the Anza-Borrego Desert Natural History Association website [....]

Sorry, all I have is the link so I'll try to add later after work, or feel drop in stuff, but this is big--AP is reporting that, before Flynn was hired as NSA the Trump transition time was advised that Flynn had failed to his foreign agent status on behalf of Turkey. This looks like the next bomb going into the weekend--or not.

“One of the reasons for Brexit, for Trump’s victory, for the rise of ultra-nationalist rightwing candidates all over Europe, is the fact that the global economy has been very good for large multinational corporations, has in many ways been a positive thing for well-educated people, but there are millions of people in this country and all over the world who have been left behind.”

The language of the Trump administration rubs many politicians of both parties the wrong way. It’s designed to break through partisan paralysis, pull the country into an America-first nationalism and persuade Trump supporters that the new president meant it when he announced at his inauguration that “the hour of action” has commenced.

[....] Last month, Jared Kushner announced the Administration’s support for the bill in a Wall Street Journal op-ed, writing that the six million Americans in local and federal prisons are included among “the forgotten men and women” that Trump vowed to fight for during his Presidential campaign.. “Get a bill to my desk, and I will sign it,” Trump promised. The House passed the bill this week.

President Trump on Thursday canceled a planned summit next month with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, citing “tremendous anger and open hostility” from the rogue nation in a letter explaining his abrupt decision.

“I feel it is inappropriate, at this time, to have this long-planned meeting,” Trump said to Kim in a letter released by the White House on Thursday morning.

The summit had been planned for June 12 in Singapore.

In his letter, Trump held open the possibility that the two leaders could meet at a later date to discuss denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, which Trump has been pushing.

"President Trump’s unprecedented meeting on Monday with the FBI director and deputy attorney general regarding a case in which he is directly involved may turn out to be the defining moment of his presidency and for his party. Bob Bauer at the Lawfare blog writes:

North Korea is threatening to reconsider Kim Jong Un’s participation in a summit with President Trump next month, saying it is up to the United States to decide whether it wants to “meet us at a meeting room or encounter us at nuclear-to-nuclear showdown.”

Stacey Abrams just one the Democratic Gubernatorial race in Georgia by roughly 3:1. She could become the first black and first female Governor of Georgia. It looks like the Republican candidate will be chosen after a runoff election since no one reached 50% of the vote.

Evans argued that Democrats could win by appealing to moderate Republicans. Abrams argued that the party needs to focus on disaffected Democrats. Abrams won. Abrams even won Democrats in northern Georgia with small minority populations.

Kendrick Lamar brought on a white fan onstage to rap along with his song “m.A.A.D. City”. When the fan rapped the song as written, repeating the N-word three times, Lamar halted the performance. He told the fan that she could not use the word. She apologized. He gave her a second chance. She almost rapped the word again, the crowd was not having it. Lamar ushered the fan off stage and continued the performance.

The audience responded negatively to the white fan using the words on stage. She lost the crowd with the first use of the words. Some did point out that she was just rapping the words as written.